rooms. According to the girls again, the food had been way better over the few previous days, and on the day preceding the inspection all girls had had the chance to shower with hot-water in the common bathroom. The children alleged that they washed their clothes and underwear themselves with cold water. 4.2. Education and Training The SVCBS in the village of Podem provides educational service to its inmates from grade 5 through grade 12. The classrooms were well equipped. The school had also a state-of-the-art computer room. The children alleged though that it was rarely used and remained locked most of the time. In contrast to most other boarding schools, the NPM observed at the SVCBS a more dynamic education process of better quality, as well as higher attendance rates. The students in grades 7 and 8 receive vocational training in sewing machine skills and tailoring, while the girls in grades 9 through 12 are trained towards industry certification in textiles, clothing, and textile machinery operation. The girls are offered also elective hairdressing courses. These career education courses take place in a well-equipped hairdressing salon. The elective courses in cooking, and food preparation were supposed to take place in the Dream House. It was found out in the interviews, however, that the only practical session had taken place on the day preceding the NPM visit, which gave rise to assumptions that the said practice session was conducted in response to the advance warning of impending inspection. Overall, the boarding school is very well equipped to provide its students with additional career training in cooking, hairdressing, and tailoring. 4.3. Medical Care The boarding school does not have a functioning health room per se due to the municipality’s inability to provide a healthcare practitioner. The administration had adapted a separate room designated for storing medicines other than the types and amounts of medications for emergency assistance provided for in MoH Ordinance No. 3 of 27 April 2000 on health rooms in childcare facilities and schools. This is in contravention of the healthcare legislation and calls into question the procedure for medical care provision at the boarding school. There was also a dental chair in the same room used for general screening dental examinations. All students were registered with a GP practice. They were also on a dentist’s patient list. The GP visits the boarding school twice a week and the dentist sees patients three times a week in his office in the village. The GP had performed the health screening assessments of all students for the current year. Some follow up tests had also been performed. During the academic year one student had been hospitalized in the neurology ward of the Multi-profile Active Treatment Hospital in the city of Ruse, and another one had been released from the boarding school to give birth to her baby. The baby and mom were being cared for in a social care facility run by the ‘Samaritans’ Association based in the city of Stara Zagora. The student Y.Y. had been diagnosed with disinhibited attachment disorder of childhood and had been accommodated in a separate room as she required continued medication therapy. The student S.S. had had her pregnancy detected in October and would be released from the boarding school by year’s end. Most girls returning after home leave would require a gynaecology consultation. The GP, however, had announced a shortage of referrals to specialists. The NPM experts sent a request for information to the RHIF in the provincial capital of Pleven and found out that all reasoned requests for additional referrals sent to the Health Fund by GPs had been granted. The students’ medical documents, such as hospital discharge summaries (epicrises), outpatient examination reports, 60